The present invention relates to the field of medical imaging, particularly to a radio frequency (RF) coil apparatus and a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus.
A magnetic resonance (MR) imaging system includes a radio frequency coil and a gradient coil. The radio frequency coil is used for emitting a radio frequency pulse with a certain frequency and power so that hydrogen protons within the detected body produce resonance, and for receiving a magnetic resonance signal produced by the hydrogen protons within the detected body, the magnetic resonance signal being used for image reconstruction of a detected part of the detected body. The gradient coil is used for emitting a level selecting gradient pulse, a phase encoding gradient pulse and a frequency encoding gradient pulse (also referred to as a read out gradient pulse) to provide three-dimensional position information for the above magnetic resonance signal so as to implement the image reconstruction.
In a magnetic resonance imaging system, usually many kinds of radio frequency coils need to be specially designed to satisfy different clinical applications, e.g., different parameter requirements or performance requirements. Since different kinds of radio frequency coils cannot be used interchangeably with each other, when imaging parameters need to be adjusted, e.g., when a scanning field of view (FOV) needs to be adjusted, usually the whole radio frequency coil needs to be replaced, which results in many problems. For example, during research and development of a new product, even though a certain parameter needs to be adjusted slightly, a new radio frequency coil still needs to be redesigned, e.g., a new carrier needs to be designed and circuit elements on the carrier need to be replaced, resulting in an increased time cost on the research and development. Since research and development personnel need to save lots of backup radio frequency devices every time when a new radio frequency coil is designed, as the number of the saved radio frequency devices continuously increases, a stock of the elements increases so as to increase the cost, and it is very easy to misuse the devices during the design so as to bring a risk to the design. Once a radio frequency coil has been designed, it cannot be altered such that the magnetic resonance imaging system can only satisfy limited sets of parameter requirements, and a small range of usage even cannot satisfy the special customization of the users. If a certain part of the radio frequency coil is damaged or a certain element of the radio frequency coil has failed, the whole radio frequency coil needs to be replaced, which results in a waste of resources.